CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED AXIMALS. 35 



of the owners of the cattle, who, of course, did not make their observa- 

 tions in tlie light of subsequent developments, we must accept the 

 situation as we find it and consider ourselves fortunate if a connection 

 can be traced between cause and effect in the greater part of the cases. 

 An exact estimate could not be made of the quantity of ergot in a given 

 quantity of the hay in Kansas, but the weight of ergot in the heads of 

 ■wild rye indicated this very closely. The head shown in Plate Vll, Fig- 

 ure 3, is a good representation of this plant as it existed in the hay.. 



In jMissouri the hay was made up mostly of red top {Agrostis inihjaris)\ 

 but also contained some blue grass and timothy. The red top and 

 blue grass contained a very large proportion of ergoted grains, and an 

 occasional head of timothy was also affected. Figures 1, 2, and 4, Plate 

 VIE, are drawings from specimens of these grasses taken from the hay- 

 racks at which the diseased cattle were eating. 



In Illinois the hay was almost entirely composed of red top, and this 

 contained a relatively large amount of ergot. Careful weighings o£ 

 specimens of this hay and the ergot which it contained, from two of ther 

 worst affected farms, demonstrate that every 75 pounds of hay contains- 

 1 pound of ergot ; or, in other words, an animal eating 20 pounds daily 

 of this hay consumed 4.2 ounces of ergot. Doubtless this quantity 

 might be taken daily for a considerable time without i)roduciug ap]jre~ 

 ciable effects under some conditions, but when the circulation in the 

 extremities is diminished bj" extremely cold weather, and when in ad- 

 dition to this the water supply is limited then ergot iu this dose, coa- 

 tinned day after day, becomes very dangerous. 



In Kansas I examined the hay on adjoining farms where no disease had 

 appeared, and 1 found a very much smaller proportion of ergot. At the 

 Dibble farm, which joins Keith's, one might examine a dozen heads of 

 rye without finding a grain of ergot, and the same was ti ue of hay found 

 in the town of Xeosho Falls. Iu Illinois, at two farms, I saw hay of the 

 cro]) of 1882 aiul also that of 1883, and while the former contained some 

 ergot the latter contained a greatly increased proportion. It had beeni 

 noticed by the i)eoj)le here that the red-top hay of the crop of 1883, for 

 some unexplained reason, was greatly inferior ; that animals neither 

 relished it nor thrived when led upon it, and it sold for $3 a ton when 

 other hay would bring 810. At Keating's the animals fed on the hay 

 of 1882 escaped the disease entirely, while those fed upon the hay har- 

 vested in 1883 alone suffered. 



Evidently the year 1883 was a favorable one for the production of 

 ergot over a very large area of the Western States, but the local condi- 

 tions of soil and situation and the time of cutting the hay' had a very 

 great inflncice on its «1ovelopinent. All of the ergoted hay of the 

 affected farms in Kansas was cut from bottom lands, and in Missouri 

 and Illinois il was grown on very level prairies the drainage of which 

 was very inii)erfe(;t. Again, the early cut hay was comparatively free^ 

 when that allowed to ripen was badly affected. 



